Life is a jigsaw puzzle. Every segment of the puzzle is formed by different elements of life. I cherish all my felicity elements, what about you?

Monday, December 12, 2005

Childhood Food Meme.

Recently I have the honour to be tagged by the hottest mama in Malaysia, if not the world. I really felt flattered at first, but then I had some hard time brainstorming/recalling my childhood food. Hey, it has been more than 2 decades (I can't believe I am now old enough to use such phrase! Sigh.), ya know? Anyhow, I am glad that I am given such opportunity to elicit some of my long forgotten memories ...

What would in my list of childhood memories food? Here goes ...

1) Milk (Adult VS Kiddy)You might wonder what does adult milk vs kiddy milk means. Actually that's a term my mum came up with when I was 5. At the age of five, I think most of us have to attend kindergarten. Every morning, my mum would wake me up, and fed me (cause I was still really sleepy, and if I would have to drink that all by myself, it would take hours.) with kiddy milk. Essentially, kiddy milk is Milo with kids' formula milk powder (like KLIM, or Nestum, etc). The adult version = Milo + condensed milk. Needless to say, the adult milk tastes nicer. I didn't know how does adult milk tasted like, until one day I begged my mum to give me a sip. Only then I knew kiddy milk tasted so bland. Later on, I would ask for adult milk, but my mum would say 'That's for adult, okay? You would only be allowed to drink that once you grow up. Now, this is the best milk for you.'

I have grown up it is.

Kiddy milk ingredients.

Adult milk ingredients.

2) My Kindy's Fried Beehoon and Red Bean Soup

If I am not wrong, most kindergarten will provide a snack meal during the short break. For some unknown reason, I always remembered my kindy's friend beehoon and red bean soup (dessert). I think I liked it a lot back then. After school, I would happily report to my mum that I finished my plate of beehoon (and I think she would praise me for that, for I didn't waste any food [and possibly the $ she paid]), when many other friends failed to do so. I think I would tell my mum the type of meal I had in kindy, day by day. I believe the school actually offered a range of food, but I could not recall any other thing else but only this combination of food.

When it comes to noodle, I prefer beehoon (vermicelli) the most than any other type of noodles. Perhaps it all started from my kindergarten life.

3) Lok lokLok lok is a type of street food sells by mobile vendors primarily in the night market. A decade ago, lok lok stalls existed in great abundance next to many old-fashioned cinemas. Many people would have a skewer or two before/after catching the movie. As the cinemas get replaced by the air-conditioned mini-cineplex, previous scenario no longer holds.

For Non-Malaysian, lok lok is actually a type of hawker feast, featuring skewered veges, meatballs, seafood, fried beancurd, etc. They are raw, so you'll have to dip the skewer into boiling hot water (provided by the vendor) in order to cook your food. Once the food is cooked (you have to estimate the cooking time yourself, roughly a few minutes later), you can either eat it as it is, or further flavoured the food by adding some other sauces the vendor provides. The common sauces are sweet hoisin sauce, hot sauce (chilli), and satay sauce. Oh ya, Malaysian normally eat this standing right next to the stall. Oh yeah, that's the way to do it.

When I was young, lok lok was considered as cheap street food, at least that's how I remember it. But now, I think it's expensive. A skewer can cost between Rm1-2, or even more. I would have to have a few skewers in order to satisfy my appetite, and with that cost, I can get a decent meal elsewhere. That's how I rationalize it.

Nonetheless, I miss lok lok. I miss how my mum would bring me to the pasar malam (Malay, meaning night market), get a few skewers of squids and Kangkong (a type of oriental vege). Those were the days ...

3) Cotton CandyI didn't have a lot of these, but to me, it is inevitable to associate this food with childhood. My family used to live very nearby to the Old Klang Road when I was a little girl. During that time, I remembered my father would bring us to many circus shows. There were a lot of them back them. No, not those classy one, selling pricey ticket like nowadays. They were cheap. And when I was young, there was so many fun-fair for us to go. I wonder what happen to these organizations. It was in these circus shows, and fun-fairs that I got to know about cotton candy. Isn't such candy a piece of heaven when you slowly melt them away in your mouth? I always thought that this candy is something amazing, and am still amazed by it till now.

4) Lolly Candy

My mum didn't pamper me with candy when I was a kid. I think the term 'never' would be appropriate when it comes to this matter. But occasionally, my nice aunties would tempt me with these fancy lolly candies ... Hey, I was a small lil' gal back then, I wouldn't say no. I remembered I would enjoy this candy with one of my maternal aunt. Now I wonder whether did she really wanna buy me something, or she was merely seeking accompaniment to enjoy the lollies with her. Ha! Those, were the days ...

Argh.

5) Chee Cheong Fun No, not the Hong-Kong style Chee Cheong Fun, but the truly-Malaysian style Chee Cheong Fun is THE FOOD that constantly wins my heart. I am a big fan of such 'cate', but sadly, I don't get to savour this food nowadays, as the sweet bean sauce isn't available here. How sad. I love my chee cheong fun with stuffed tofu, tofu slabs, meatballs, bouncy fishballs, and the special sweet sauce together with some chilli sauce. If top with crisp shallots, that would be perfecto. Some people prefer having chee cheong fun with curry broth, I stay loyal to the sweet sauce nonetheless.

I had this food since young. When I was in my primary school, there was a man who would operate a motocycle with his mobile stall to sell this. Every morning, when I heard the man shouting 'chee cheong fun', I would rush to my mum and beg her to get me this as breakfast. There were times that my mum asked me to buy the food myself, i.e. to take a plate, go out, tell the uncle what I wanted, and let him prepare my meal, then my mum would come out later to pay for it. I never had the guts to go out. NEVER. I was such a coward. What was I afraid of? He wouldn't hurt me, nor kidnap me, would he? Ha.

Since the meme required FIVE types of food, I won't make any modifications here.

It really was fun to think back.Believe it or not, I had my fun doing so. Normally, I wouldn't agree to pass the meme on to someone else if I am assigned to do so. However, I really wanna share this joy with you. So, I will tag someone ...

And the lucky readers are:

1) Dr. Vagus_NYou mentioned that you're from Melaka, didn't you? Am just curious to find out what were the stuffs Melaka offered when you were a lil' kid. With Dr. Vagus great sense of humour, I anticipate an interesting post.

3) Ms. Glutton RabbitThis lil' Penangite rabbit always hop around seeking for great culinary inspiration. Let's see what did she has when she was younger ...

It was a pleasant journey to think about food retrospectively. Although you bear a risk of salivate in nostalgia, I can assure you, it's an worthwhile effort. Just, don't take it as an assignment by doing it for the sake of completing a task. I hope you have fun.

11 Comments:

hi greenapple. thanks for dropping by at my blog and i'm glad to know that the pictures do inspire people! looks like 've made yet another blogger friend here on the blogsphere! i'll be visiting your blog regularly as well ya!

hey, good to see that 4 of the 5 food you wrote brought back many memories for me too. except for lok-lok which i dont like. i always think of them as dirty hawker food till today and sure enough, it really is. cotton candy is delicious. maybe i should go out and get some for Gordon to try some of these days. mmmmm, and i love chee cheong fun, ipoh has the best of the whole lot.

vcxahxAck! To my surprise, I've been tagged again! Childhood food, this is a new one. Coincidentally, I've tagged you too Greenapple. It's a Meme called You Are What You Eat. This is a 'tis for tat' kind of thing huh? Hehe... BTW, I'll be doing the Meme by next week... this okay friend?